Pregnant woman gives birth in jail lobby after arrest for public intoxication

(CBS) SANTA CRUZ- A pregnant woman who was arrested for public drunkenness gave birth in the lobby of the Santa Cruz County jail early Monday morning, CBS San Francisco reports.

Sheriff Sgt. Steve Carney says that the woman was eventually booked after an evaluation at a hospital after the jail staff initially refused to book the 29-year-old woman from Clearlake because she was pregnant and intoxicated.

Deputies determined on Monday that the woman had sobered up enough to go home. As she was being escorted out of the jail lobby, she went into labor, report the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The jail medical staff assisted in the delivery of a baby girl who was estimated to be two or three months premature. Carney told reporters that they had to resuscitate the newborn before paramedics arrived.

"(The jail staff) did a good job," Carney told the Sentinel. "They probably saved this little baby's life ... what if she (the mother) had walked away?"

The mother and the baby were taken to the hospital for further care, the Sentinel reported.